The Fall of Hyperion

This is the sequel to Hyperion, but unfortunately I didn’t find that it could live up to the majesty of its predecessor. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, it’s just that I can’t rave about it frothing at the mouth like I did for Hyperion.

The tale continues with the travelers but also we have a story in parallel about what is going on with the greater universe. We meet two of my favorite characters in this series. Meina Gladstone is the CEO of the Hegemony and a complex and fascinating character; there are some shocking revelations about her as the story goes on and in many respects I look up to her for her foresight, but it’s also not all good. She is a political leader worth studying.

Then there’s Joseph Severn, who is another cybrid of Keats (the character Johnny, from the first book, was also a cybrid of his). But Joseph Severn has dreams, dreams of the group of pilgrims on Hyperion that are actually reality. This turns out to be of major import to the plot, as CEO Gladstone is able to receive remote information on the happenings on Hyperion through him.

As expected, there are developments on the planet of Hyperion. Sol Weintraub’s daughter, Rachel, continues to age downward towards age zero, and that tension gets palpable by the end. We also learn more about the Shrike and about the identity of Monica, the mysterious woman from Colonel Kassad’s story. Likewise, the characters continue to die one by one in appalling ways.

And that story does have some rather satisfactory loose ends tied up by the end. It takes a while to get there, though, and there’s a lot of brooding and wondering about when the Shrike is going to turn up, and not being able to do anything about it but just worry about it. There’s lots of wandering around in storms and the group keeps getting separated. I found this story to sag in the middle but grow compelling towards the end.

Although even at the end, it never quite felt like absolutely everything was explained, such as the true nature of the Shrike.

But while that story is going, there’s a second story going on with CEO Gladstone, Joseph Severn, and the unfolding war with the Ousters. That story actually has quite the enjoyable, epic arc. It starts with utmost confidence in the war and ends in disaster of Biblical, epic scale.

And it turns out that that whole bit about the AI TechnoCore doing some weird stuff with a copy of Earth? And trying to invent the Ultimate Intelligence? That turns out to be pretty relevant. So I was glad to see that a lot of those things weren’t wasted. There was a point to some of those earlier stories with the original Hyperion book.

I felt like, once these two books are taken together, there definitely is an epic scope, there is a lot about it that is satisfying, but somehow the second book just didn’t feel as neatly wrapped up as the first. Still glad I read it, but I guess it’s hard to compare to the first book when it’s such a masterpiece.

I thought I was happy to stop at just Hyperion, having read a bunch of intriguing sci Fi vignettes with a satisfying cliff hanger, but this one goes from intriguing to Exploding Brain meme levels of reveals and plots within plots. It was slow to get going but I'm super happy I stuck with it.

Coming to grips with this book is like coming to grips with quantum mechanics. You can see what's happening, but it's tough to understand why it's happening.

The book is a triumph. It's a mind-bending opus that incorporates poetry, religion, philosophy, and intrigue. With Hyperion as its prelude, The Fall of Hyperion delivers on its promise of a worthy conclusion (despite my fears that it would end on yet another cliffhanger, something for which Mr. Simmons has a talent for writing.) Enemies shift, and characters grow in unexpected ways.

Despite these laudable qualities, I feel like I'd need a degree in literature AND religion to truly "get" this book. There is some weighty stuff in here. Mr. Simmons juggles multiple characters in multiple locations in multiple timelines with effortless aplomb, and I applaud his ability.

For me, however, reading the Fall of Hyperion was like being trapped in a sandstorm at the Time Tombs. You can't see anything very clearly, there's a lot of turbulence, and the settings are strange indeed.

The Fall of Hyperion doesn't play down to its reader. It challenges its reader to keep up with it.

Simply amazing book even though not that much is happening after all. The different characters stories were told so differently and engaging it really felt like the character telling his story. Obviously the stories were also very good, especially the one about the child.

The beginning feels a bit overwhelming with all the terms of this science fiction world but in time you'll understand the world more and more. And all the worldbuilding is done "on the way" - it never gets in the way of the story being told itself.

If you like science fiction i'd urge you to read this book, at least the first story (you'll know when it's finished).

Twists towards a wild exploration of intelligence and religion and impossible choice in the face of fate, in an homage to Keats that I'm not really equipped to judge.

Just couldn't get myself to finish this. Moving on to something else.

Excellent second half of the story that began with "Hyperion". Poetry meets theology meets technology, giving plenty of food for though, as the author never gets out of his way to argue in favor of either.

Wowsers, what a ride. Fascinating universe, intriguing and wide-ranging characters, and a huge, complex story arc - perhaps at times too huge and complex. I never could really get fully on board with the mythical/metaphysical component woven throughout, which at times made things a little rough to get through. The fact that the narrator throughout was (sort of) a metaphysical-ish character made it difficult sometimes, but it was played down enough to work fine. And it was a crazy, wonderful ride regardless - the dilemmas set up were immense and presented well. Gladstone was a particularly powerful and engrossing character, and was very well portrayed - definitely a solid candidate for one of my all-time favorite characters. The universe of farcasters and particularly the consequences that played out through the climax were fascinating, and Gladstone's hand at the helm was expertly written. The chapter following the destruction of the farcaster network - little more than a list of worlds and their reactions - I thought was brilliant. The ubiquitous accepted reality of interconnectedness in the society was built up subtly but relentlessly, and the series of vignettes illustrating its collapse was excellent. While the planetary summaries were just a monotonous series of paragraphs, I thought it was quite fitting - this multitude of worlds that had been effectively one continuous expanse of humanity were now each relegated to a small individual paragraph, each dealing with the collapse in their own individual ways, dealing with the ripples of a severed galactic economy. Loved it. Oh, which reminds me of an eyeroll-inducing paragraph: somehow, even though the Catholic church has evolved and moderated over the last 800 years and elected a fucking Teilhard disciple as pope, basically endorsing humanism, the token Muslim planet reacted as all Muslims apparently do and always will: immediately descend into fundamentalism and middle-ages darkness. Come on, Simmons, you can do better than that.



And the Ousters! The future books had better feature more of them, because there is so much awesome potential there, and I am sad about how limited the glimpses I got in this book were. At this point, I care about them a lot more than Moneta and all that lot - it's just too handwavey and disconnected for me to follow or get too involved in so far.



Overall, a fascinating saga [edit: so far, yes Keegan], sweeping and grand and delicious, but got a little too metaphysical for my taste from time to time. But still well-worth the read, and of course with plenty of parallels and reflections on our world to make fodder for late-night discussions if one were wont to.

Wowsers, what a ride. Fascinating universe, intriguing and wide-ranging characters, and a huge, complex story arc - perhaps at times too huge and complex. I never could really get fully on board with the mythical/metaphysical component woven throughout, which at times made things a little rough to get through. The fact that the narrator throughout was (sort of) a metaphysical-ish character made it difficult sometimes, but it was played down enough to work fine. And it was a crazy, wonderful ride regardless - the dilemmas set up were immense and presented well. Gladstone was a particularly powerful and engrossing character, and was very well portrayed - definitely a solid candidate for one of my all-time favorite characters. The universe of farcasters and particularly the consequences that played out through the climax were fascinating, and Gladstone's hand at the helm was expertly written. The chapter following the destruction of the farcaster network - little more than a list of worlds and their reactions - I thought was brilliant. The ubiquitous accepted reality of interconnectedness in the society was built up subtly but relentlessly, and the series of vignettes illustrating its collapse was excellent. While the planetary summaries were just a monotonous series of paragraphs, I thought it was quite fitting - this multitude of worlds that had been effectively one continuous expanse of humanity were now each relegated to a small individual paragraph, each dealing with the collapse in their own individual ways, dealing with the ripples of a severed galactic economy. Loved it. Oh, which reminds me of an eyeroll-inducing paragraph: somehow, even though the Catholic church has evolved and moderated over the last 800 years and elected a fucking Teilhard disciple as pope, basically endorsing humanism, the token Muslim planet reacted as all Muslims apparently do and always will: immediately descend into fundamentalism and middle-ages darkness. Come on, Simmons, you can do better than that.



And the Ousters! The future books had better feature more of them, because there is so much awesome potential there, and I am sad about how limited the glimpses I got in this book were. At this point, I care about them a lot more than Moneta and all that lot - it's just too handwavey and disconnected for me to follow or get too involved in so far.



Overall, a fascinating saga [edit: so far, yes Keegan], sweeping and grand and delicious, but got a little too metaphysical for my taste from time to time. But still well-worth the read, and of course with plenty of parallels and reflections on our world to make fodder for late-night discussions if one were wont to.

Wowsers, what a ride. Fascinating universe, intriguing and wide-ranging characters, and a huge, complex story arc - perhaps at times too huge and complex. I never could really get fully on board with the mythical/metaphysical component woven throughout, which at times made things a little rough to get through. The fact that the narrator throughout was (sort of) a metaphysical-ish character made it difficult sometimes, but it was played down enough to work fine. And it was a crazy, wonderful ride regardless - the dilemmas set up were immense and presented well. Gladstone was a particularly powerful and engrossing character, and was very well portrayed - definitely a solid candidate for one of my all-time favorite characters. The universe of farcasters and particularly the consequences that played out through the climax were fascinating, and Gladstone's hand at the helm was expertly written. The chapter following the destruction of the farcaster network - little more than a list of worlds and their reactions - I thought was brilliant. The ubiquitous accepted reality of interconnectedness in the society was built up subtly but relentlessly, and the series of vignettes illustrating its collapse was excellent. While the planetary summaries were just a monotonous series of paragraphs, I thought it was quite fitting - this multitude of worlds that had been effectively one continuous expanse of humanity were now each relegated to a small individual paragraph, each dealing with the collapse in their own individual ways, dealing with the ripples of a severed galactic economy. Loved it. Oh, which reminds me of an eyeroll-inducing paragraph: somehow, even though the Catholic church has evolved and moderated over the last 800 years and elected a fucking Teilhard disciple as pope, basically endorsing humanism, the token Muslim planet reacted as all Muslims apparently do and always will: immediately descend into fundamentalism and middle-ages darkness. Come on, Simmons, you can do better than that.



And the Ousters! The future books had better feature more of them, because there is so much awesome potential there, and I am sad about how limited the glimpses I got in this book were. At this point, I care about them a lot more than Moneta and all that lot - it's just too handwavey and disconnected for me to follow or get too involved in so far.



Overall, a fascinating saga [edit: so far, yes Keegan], sweeping and grand and delicious, but got a little too metaphysical for my taste from time to time. But still well-worth the read, and of course with plenty of parallels and reflections on our world to make fodder for late-night discussions if one were wont to.